Some Films

Posted on April 19, 2007 in Film

The DVD player has been on almost constantly every evening. Fills lost time and helps my mind become a little more supple as I mold it to the imagery of the film and find new meanings for myself. I’ve seen several interesting films and a couple of dogs.

Atilla was a television miniseries about Atilla the Hun. When I watch historical drama, I like to see some lip service to history. Atilla avoids — like a swerve at the last minute before you crash into a concrete barrier — the most interesting thing about the man which was his fear of women. This Attilla is a womanizer, a carnal despot with a huge harem and slave girls to serve the hours when his wives are menstruating. Of course, being a television movie, it doesn’t go into that kind of detail, but it gives you that idea. The real [[Atilla the Hun]] drank himself to death on his marriage night because he was a virgin and dreaded sex. Now that makes for an interesting portrayal of the Scourge of God, but you won’t see it because there’s nothing to excite the entertainment of the hand.

Just last night we saw The Last King of Scotland which is about [[Idi Amin]] “the general, the president, the king of the sea”. Unlike the caricatures which I saw growing up during the seventies, this film portrays him as a human being, albeit a paranoid one. You still wouldn’t want him running your country, but you can also detect something of the charisma that he used to draw people into following him.

Cherish is a thriller/romance. [[The Association|The Association’s]] old theme song takes on new meaning when put into the mind of a stalker:

Cherish is the word I use to describe
All the feeling that I have hiding here for you inside
You don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I had told you
You don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I could hold you
You don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I could
Mold you into someone who could
Cherish me as much as I cherish you

Oh I’m beginning to think that man has never found
The words that could make you want me
That have the right amount of letters, just the right sound
That could make you hear, make you see
That you are drivin’ me out of my mind

Spooky, huh?

According to Quest for Fire, the defining marks of civilization are the ability to make fire and the missionary position (as opposed to doggy style). Or this is what I concluded from watching this interesting if flawed motion picture. Quest was made in the days when [[Robert Ardrey]]’s The Territorial Imperative was popular among my Reagan-generation peers. The core concept is that each band had its own fire which it refused to share with anyone else. There’s nothing in the archaeological evidence or common sense to support this theory — what would it have harmed anyone to give another group fire? I am sure that groups fought once the meat ran out or when another had a particularly choice cave, but senseless war, I’d wager is a relatively modern development. Check out the ape-like [[Neanderthal|Neanderthals]]. Though full of inaccuracies, Quest is still a great story if you regard it as fantasy rather than historical romance.

I will only tell you how great Angels in America is and how dumb The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. plays. There are others, but they don’t excite my imagination with commentary.